


one for the yearbooks

by machi_kun



Series: Cap-IM Bingo 2020 [1]
Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Stony Bingo, except they keep meeting and it keeps being ugly every single time, meet ugly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25737520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/machi_kun/pseuds/machi_kun
Summary: Having an awkward time in high school might be an essential life thing – but some variety would be appreciated, if he’s allowed to be a little picky.C’mon.How is it possible that he can’t have one normal interaction with Tony freaking Stark?
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Cap-IM Bingo 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1866988
Comments: 12
Kudos: 167





	one for the yearbooks

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to the SteveTony bingo for giving me an excuse to write this! This is a fill for the square O-2, prompt: Avengers Academy!

On his first day on campus, Steve gets a fist to the nose.

Which, to be fair, is not unusual – he is Captain America, and he sometimes runs _towards_ a punch to the face, whether it’s a good idea or not, because sometimes the people doing the punching are HYDRA or AIM so a fight is expected. And he heals fast. He is no stranger to a surprise attack every once in a while.

But on his _first day_ , the person who punches him is not even a villain or an enemy. It’s actually one of the Academy’s first students, the famous – or infamous – _Tony Stark_.

It wouldn’t be a problem with other people. Or rather, _most_ other people, because Steve knows he’s strong, but the Academy definitely has people who are much stronger than he is; But point is, Tony Stark was not a person Steve was expecting to be able to deal such a strong blow, not when he’s out of his armor.

Problem is, Tony is _always_ in his armor in some ways, because his right hand is a _prosthetic, made of metal._ And he is right-handed, so _that’s_ the hand he swings around when he’s showing off the buildings on campus, which is exactly why Steve gets a fist to the nose in the first place.

Steve doesn’t get angry, of course not. It’s obviously an accident, and if he’s very honest, he could have been paying a little more attention and easily avoided the blow, and the only reason why he didn’t is because he had stopped walking to stare at the gigantic building Tony had been gesturing at, which was, coincidentally, _Stark Tower._ And Tony is _very_ flustered when he realizes what he’s done, something Steve did not expect at all, and he’s not even bleeding or anything, his nose is just red and a little swollen.

But it’s awkward. Of course it’s awkward. But it seems like it’s so awkward for Tony that as soon as they pass by Van Dyne’s Outfits, he hands Steve off to his friend, the bubbly and enthusiastic Jan, that seems very excited to give Captain America the tour when Tony has to _suddenly_ go back to his Tower on a very short notice.

Steve tries to tell Tony it’s fine, but he never gets the chance. He wonders if the Iron Man boots are meant to make him faster when he runs, or if he really is that fast on his own, but he also never gets the chance to ask.

Jan is nice. Steve likes her. She’s graceful enough that she only pokes fun at Steve’s nose once.

She says she’ll talk to Tony later, but Steve never gets the chance to ask _what for._ And that is it.

That’s his first day in the Academy, and _that_ is his first significant interaction with Tony Stark.

But it _definitely_ wasn’t the last.

Steve loves the campus.

Other students have come in after him, and as the paths and dorms and training rooms start to fill, he readily settles into the spirit of teamwork the Academy promotes. It’s his favorite thing. He makes plenty use of the Gym and the Archives, gets a lot of work done at SHIELD HQ, and he even practices some speeches at the Auditorium every once in a while. It doesn’t even take much convincing for Fury and Pepper Potts to allow him to make an obstacle course, and it’s great to see other people use the space he’s put together for them.

He really likes the Academy.

And Steve _really likes_ Club A. Even if most people thought he wouldn’t, for some reason.

Steve likes dancing, and he likes spending time with his friends, both of which Club A is made for, so why wouldn’t he? It’s fun, hanging out when the training is done, or after a round against AIM – Vision plays sometimes, but even when he doesn’t the music is nice, the bar has a nice selection of beverages and snacks, and there’s a pool table.

And Steve is nothing if not competitive.

The first few times, though, he was there alone more often than not. Sometimes Sam would come along and they would play or dance, or maybe Steve would sit at the bar talking to Natasha or Jan, or meeting the new people that had arrived on campus when he wasn’t looking. But many times, he’d been there by himself, just playing pool.

And that’s when Tony Stark shows up unannounced, of course.

Not that he _should_ announce every time he goes somewhere, though Steve suspects sometimes he _does_ just because – what he means is…

You don’t walk behind someone playing pool if they don’t know you’re there. Because if you do, you might get hit with a pool bat on the stomach when they wind up for a shot.

Which is _exactly_ what happens, and Steve feels the resistance in movement only a millisecond before Tony yelps loudly in pain, and drops his drink on the floor with a loud shattering sound.

Steve is _mortified._

He drops the bat in a haste, and raises his hands into the air as if to indicate it’s not an attack, he didn’t do it on purpose – but of _course_ he didn’t do it on purpose. He knows it, and Tony knows it too, or so he says as Steve starts to apologize profusely, ears burning in a way that indicate they must be flaming red in embarrassment. Steve hadn’t seen him, hadn’t even heard him come into the club, distracted as he was with planning his shots. Tony laughs even, if a little too winded, despite the fact that his belly clearly hurts where he’s still holding it, and says:

“Guess that makes us even, huh?”

And Steve might laugh a little at that, but it does not quell the shame he’s feeling much, if he’s honest.

Steve stops himself from just pulling Tony’s arm away to check his stomach, or from just putting his hands on him all over to check if he’s fine – he’s fine, he says he’s fine –, but of course Steve gives him a hand to stand up, and Tony gives him the Gauntlet hand.

It’s the first time Steve has touched Tony’s armor directly.

He’s almost a little distracted by how… _amazing_ it is. It’s a little on the heavier side, definitely a little heavier than Tony’s other hand if Steve were to grab it too, but it’s sleek and bright and incredible, plates locked together seamlessly, mechanical joints bending and gripping so naturally it can only be the work of a genius. Steve has to snap his gaze away from it and back to Tony, or else he’ll pull too hard and only cause another accident, like pulling Tony directly into himself or something.

But no. Tony gets up, swaying a little before settling steady on his feet, and takes in a deep breath before letting go of his stomach. He can’t stand up fully straight yet, but it’s fine. He assures Steve he’s fine. He even jokingly asks if he should join the game, smirking, but Steve feels overwhelmed enough to simply give up the game entirely, and quickly makes his way out when he sees Loki coming in, knowing he and Tony are friends and they will be fine, so he can go back to his dorm and groan in shame as loudly as he can.

All things considered, he and Tony are friendly enough.

For all his boastful posturing, Steve can tell Tony is a little embarrassed to talk him, probably because of the awful luck they seem to be having every time they meet. The punch and the Club A incident are only the beginning; There was that one time they were both working at the Asgardian Forge and Tony dropped a hammer on Steve’s foot, and that other time in the Avengers Dorm when Steve accidentally broke the punching bag and hit Tony on the floor below, distracted while tinkering with his tech. Steve still feels awful about that, because Tony bruises a lot easier, and for a lot longer than Steve does, and a poke to the gut with a pool bat is very different from a _punching bag falling onto you from above_ , even if Tony assured him he felt fine.

If Tony is not actually embarrassed to talk to Steve, Steve is _definitely_ embarrassed to talk to Tony.

Still, they are friendly. If they walk past each other they wave and smile, and if they have to fight or train together, they do it very well. Funny enough, when there are other people there to kind of buffer their interactions, nothing ever goes wrong. Both Tony and Steve hang out with Natasha a lot – Tony with far more flirting involved it seems –, if they meet, nothing weird happens. No accidents, no unfortunate bruising. When Jan and Loki and Sam or even _Enchantress_ are there, everything goes well.

It also keeps the awkwardness away, and they bond surprisingly fast over these peaceful moments.

They _are_ friends, Steve thinks – they just can’t seem to be alone together without one of them getting a minor injury. But it gets to a point where it starts to _bother_ Steve. Sam says Steve is like a pack animal – and months later, when Steve gets actually turned into a werewolf Sam has _the time of his life_ making fun of him –, and he can’t _stand_ the idea of someone not liking him. But the problem is not that Tony doesn’t _like him_ , or at least, Steve doesn’t think it is.

The problem is that Steve can’t seem to have a single alone interaction with Tony that doesn’t result in bruising, and he’d really like that to stop. He wants to spend time with Tony, he wants to genuinely meet Tony, and talk to him, and learn about him. He’s more than the Academy’s first recruit – he’s their teammate and their _friend_ , and he’s important, so Steve wants to have the chance to get to know him better. That’s all.

But they keep screwing it up somehow!

Steve then decides to do what he does best: bond in battle. He’s not lined up to go to a mission anytime soon, seeing as Thor, Wasp, Jessica Jones, Hellcat, Daredevil, and Luke Cage are all still off-campus fighting AIM, so he’ll have to get to Tony in one of the training quarters. Problem is, Tony rarely goes to the Dojo, and he trains at the Gym at odd times.

So Steve’s best chance is the Blasting Range.

He goes there as casually as possible when he realizes Tony’s in, firing his repulsors at the training dummies in quick, agile motions, with the ease only a practiced fighter can have. Steve would stop and watch him for a few moments if he could, but that would be creepy, and he’s there on a mission; He doesn’t have time to dally before going to one of the available lanes and taking his shield in hand, ready to sling it at his target.

Tony sees him, and smiles. It’s casual. He says hi to Tony, Tony says hi back. He asks about how Tony’s day is going, and Tony says it’s fine, and asks the same. Again, _painfully awkward_ , when it’s just the two of them. But this is Steve’s battleground, this is something he understands, and he will not let the shame stop him from achieving his goal.

“You have pretty good aim.” He comments, stopping only for a few seconds between one throw and the other, the shield ricocheting back to his hand in a perfect trajectory.

Tony stops before he can fire his next attack. “Is that a pun?”

“What?” Steve blinks, and groans loudly once he realizes what Tony means. “No! Tony. I’m just saying it’s pretty impressive how you use your armor.”

Tony breathes out an airy little laugh, raising his eyebrows in an amused expression. “Well, can’t have people thinking Captain America is the only one who can fight long range in this campus.”

“No one thinks that.” Steve shakes his head, exasperated, but the corners of his mouth tug upwards a little without his permission. But he can’t help it. It’s working. They’re here, just Steve and Tony, and look at that – they’re having a normal conversation and no one has been hit yet! And Tony’s smiling too, he also likes spending time with Steve, and this is everything Steve’s wanted for months. “Not with all the new people we got now. You want to go tell Hawkeye and War Machine and Spider-Woman you think they’re not good at long range?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“That’s what it sounds like you said.”

“Shut up, Steve.”

“Sounds like you’re just scared, Tony.”

Tony stares at him, face blank, and without breaking eye contact, raises his hand and aims at _Steve’s_ target, and blasts it.

“Hey!” Steve exclaims, and throws his shield at Tony’s target, and it shakes violently as the blow hits it right in the head.

“You started.” Tony smiles, and fires again.

“Go hit your own robot!” Steve complains, but at the same time, he throws his shield again, and not only it hits Tony’s target, but also the poor, innocent robot to his right, in the other free lane.

“Now you’re just showing off!”

“You gave me no choice.”

“Oh, yeah?” Tony smirks, and his eyes shine with mirth. “We’ll see about that, Cap.”

They… destroy the Range.

A little bit.

Maybe.

All the practice dummies are scorched black and without heads, some of them falling from the supporting beams completely, and the entire back wall is dirty with soot and piled with rubble and scrap metal. At certain angles, Steve can even see the dents his shield left, and there’s a hole about the size of a football in the second lane, where Tony’s repulsor managed to blast through, despite the entire building being reinforced.

Thankfully no one on the _other_ side of the wall got hit too, but it did alert Fury to what they were doing.

The Range gets shut down for a few days. Tony even says he’ll help with the maintenance, and they can upgrade the whole thing while he’s there. He doesn’t seem to be at all fazed by Fury’s lecture, smiling wide all the way through it, and though Steve’s ears burn a little with embarrassment, hiding his smile is surprisingly hard when Tony’s so damn happy, even if Fury stares him down with all the might of his one good eye.

They’re not without bruises this time either. At one point, Tony attempted to grab his shield and it escaped his hands only to jam painfully into his arm, and the head of one of the dummies got thrown into the air with one of Tony’s explosives and it fell on Steve, and he might have a huge bump hiding beneath his hair, but it’s definitely there, because Steve can _feel_ it.

But it’s _fine._ For the first time, they’re alright. They’re having fun together, and not even bruises can take away the joy they’re feeling.

They’re friends. They’re good friends.

Steve can’t stop smiling.

The Civil War puts a damper on things.

Steve doesn’t like to fight his friends. He particularly doesn’t like to fight Tony, because he likes Tony, he respects Tony a lot, and it _aches_ that they’re fighting over one of the things Tony loves the most: his tech. Steve doesn’t want Tony to think he doesn’t respect Tony’s intellect or his creations, because he _does_ – but the Civil War… that was a bad call. That’s all. People are allowed to make bad calls, even Tony. Doesn’t mean Steve doesn’t like him anymore. He needs Tony to know that.

Tony says they’re fine. He’s smiling when he says it too, and he offers Steve a hug.

Steve desperately wants to hug him, and he desperately wants to believe Tony’s being sincere when he says they’re alright, but deep down, he _worries._

So he stupidly says no.

Tony doesn’t seem to take it personally, but Steve regrets not taking his chance to give Tony a hug. 

But he didn’t want to take the chance and hurt him.

He doesn’t know where Tony’s bruises are, even if Steve is sure he has them.

When it finally gets to a point where Steve is losing sleep over it, he decides to talk to Bucky.

Winter Soldier Bucky. Not Forties Bucky.

Not that the other Bucky wouldn’t be helpful – at first, having two of his best friend walking around was weird, but with some time, Steve got used to it, and came to see them as they really are, two distinct people, separated by time and experience, and that’s okay. He learned how to be fine with it because both of them seemed to be fine with it. But he won’t lie –, they are _wildly_ different people.

And Steve knows he and the younger Bucky share a… very specific view on how to deal with their problems. Which means: suck it up, and do it. Maybe in a less aggressive and more motivational way, but that’s the gist of it. And Steve knows. Despite what Tony thinks, he’s not _that_ unaware of how he may come across.

But this is _Tony._ And Tony is always complicating Steve’s life, it seems.

So he asks Winter Soldier Bucky. Maybe this will provide some other ideas Steve could try to get back to Tony’s side.

“Write him a song.”

Or maybe not.

“I’m not gonna write him a song.” Steve complains.

The Winter Soldier shrugs. “Works for me.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Steve gets a very nasty look for that one.

“I just—” He huffs, frustrated. “I want to have one normal afternoon with him! Is that too much to ask?”

“Why don’t you? Ask?”

Steve stops. “What? Like—”

“Did you ever ask him to hang out with you? Just because you want to?”

Did he—

_No._

Steve never thought of that.

“You’re an idiot.” Bucky tells him, and Steve has no choice but to admit that he has a point. “Just ask him out.”

So Steve does.

He asks Tony to help him study.

Which, okay, not his best strategy, but it _works_ nonetheless. Maybe Tony is just as eager to hang out as Steve is, not that Steve would allow himself to believe that, even if the mere idea is enough to make his chest feel all tight and warm with happiness.

Not that they actually study much, because twenty minutes in Tony starts joking in that weirdly endearing, flirty way he always does, and Steve, for once, is feeling so elated that he actually _managed_ to get to spend a day with Tony Stark without _any injuries_ so far that he just jokes right back, and their conversation stretches for _hours_ without any of them noticing.

But others do, of course. Eventually, they get kicked out of the Archives by Bobbi, because she wants to use the computer to watch dog videos and they’re bothering her.

Both of them end up with a little bruising from that.

But for the first time, it’s neither of their faults, so they _laugh._

And it seems to work, because even after being kicked out, neither of them wants to _leave._ They laugh all the way to the park, they joke around while Tony grabs them a bite from the shawarma stand, they sit together by the tree and Tony even leans against his shield where Steve props it against the trunk, and both of them sort of lie down together, to avoid putting their asses on the floor and risk putting pressure on the tender bruises Bobbi was so kind to gift them with.

And it’s great. It’s just… It’s amazing.

Steve loves it.

“We should do this again.” He says, as they’re both walking back in the direction of Stark Tower, lazily strolling through the long way around on campus.

“What, get kicked out the Archives?” Tony laughs, eyebrow arched. “Is it not enough that you cause me minor injuries, Rogers? Now you want to employ Mockingbird to do it?”

“No, I mean… We should hang out. Just the two of us. Again.” Steve says, a little awkward, and he rubs his nape with his hand trying to ease away the hot feeling that blooms in his skin.

“You mean—” Tony stops, and Steve stops too to look at him, startled by the way Tony’s eyes widen and his cheeks suddenly bloom red. “Are you— Are you asking me on a date?”

“I – uh—” Steve jumps, caught off guard, and without even thinking about it, he says, “Maybe.”

“ _Maybe?_ ” Tony shrieks, his hands trembling, and he’s – he’s so flustered that _Steve’s_ flustered, and now they’re both flustered and fumbling over words, two idiots screaming at each other on the sidewalk. “You have to better than _maybe_ , Rogers!”

“Yes?” Steve decides. “I don’t know, yes!”

“Was _that_ a date!?” Tony looks back in the direction of the Archives, but it lasts less than a second, his gaze snapping back to Steve like magnets. “Is that why you were flirting with me?”

“You were flirting with me!”

“I always flirt with you! You never flirt back!”

“You mean punching me in the face was flirting?” Steve jabs.

“I said you never flirt back. But when it’s disastrous injuries you _always_ do it back.” Tony points out.

“I said I was sorry!”

“I said I was sorry too!”

“So what’s the problem!?”

“I don’t know!” Tony throws his arms in the air. “So I guess I’m going out with you, then!”

They both stop, heaving breaths and just staring at each other, mortified they’ve just essentially _yelled_ their way into… a _date_ , it seems.

It doesn’t sound wrong.

Actually—

It sounds… nice.

Yeah.

“Will you?” Steve asks, almost in a whisper, because now the silence around them in the street sounds deafening, and it all feels too intimate to speak too loud. Tony’s cheeks are still red – _adorable_ , his mind decides, and his heart agrees –, his breath still hard, his hands still shaking, but his _eyes_ are locked onto Steve’s and Steve doesn’t want him to leave.

“Yeah.” Tony breathes, in a low, equally intimate tone. “I will. We can… go out.”

“Okay.” Steve says, in a soft, incredulously happy tone. “Okay. We can… Where should we go?”

“Aren’t you supposed to know? You asked _me_.”

“I wasn’t planning that far ahead.”

“What?” Tony grins, maliciously. “Sorry, can you repeat that?”

“I’m gonna take it back.” Steve threatens.

“You can’t, too late, Captain.” Tony teases. “You could come over. I have a hot tub.”

“Knowing us, one of us would slip and break something.”

But it’s not a _no._

Tony laughs, and grabs his hand. “No, we won’t. And I think it’s worth the risk. What’re some minor injuries between us anyway?”

And frankly – how can he not agree with that?

So Tony pulls, and Steve goes.


End file.
